Galapagos Island’s day 1

Date: 07/02
City: Galapagos Island, Ecuador
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 33130

So we got up before the alarm clock rung (6:30AM), organized the rest (cover bikes, put my jacket away…..), had breakfast and got into the taxi and got to the airport. Luckily, Willi had sent us good instructions on what to do at the airport. We had to find the luggage inspection and buy a migration card for 10US$/person,


Then drop our luggage off (only one side pannier), go through the x-ray, loose our scissor in the first aid kit J … and then waited to board the plane.

All worked without a hitch (didn’t get seats side by side, but I swapped). We arrived at the Seymour de Baltra airport, the temperature was nice and warm.

No problems at the customs and immigration and at the exit we found our guide Fabien immediately. Two fellow travellers were already waiting there since two hours and there was one still to come… But not too long after we arrived he arrived as well and after a short bus ride in a totally crammed bus we jumped into a zodiac (rubber dingy) and got transferred to the boat.

The cabin was great, it had air-condition and private toilet/shower. After a great lunch, we had our first excursion to an island with a beautiful white beach. On this beach sea turtles nest and we would have a look at the nesting place. In the right picture you can see the turtle tracks on the beach, they look a bit like tyre tracks.

Here we saw our first iguana

and red crabs on the black lava stones. I really like the contrast 😀

We continued a bit further to a small lake where we found some flamingos. Currently it is not the right time to see many of them, but we were quite happy with a few. I have seen flamingos before, but only in a zoo and not in their natural environment. By the way, the colour of the flamingos comes from algae that they eat.  See? We’re an educational blog 😉


Then it was time to get picked up again and to get back to the boat. The panorama picture below shows the view from our boat.

Back on the boat we grabbed our snorkeling gear and went snorkeling. The visibility was not too good, since it was a sandy beach and the water stirred up the sand. On our return the boat started to move to the next island which we would explore tomorrow. On our way we had some company, some fregate birds, and one landed on a pole to hitch a free ride, they were not scared at all.


And then there was the beautifull sunset, enough said J

After sunset we had dinner and the crew introduced themselves to us and visa versa.

So far we were only five passenger, but more would come in two days. When I was writing this blog, I immediately noticed that we have way to many pictures per day to fit all days in Galapagos into one post, so I’ll post it day by day.

 

 

 

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